The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-09-04
THE SCAPEGOAT.
A Review of Holman Hunts
Picture.
THE KID THAT WAS "LET CO."
"a More Pitiable Quadruped than this
ScapeEOat Would be Difficult
TO Imagine"
THE KID THAT WAS .'LET co."

There is much that contents me in
Holman Hunts picture. The debauch-
ed looking lop- cared old goat, sick to
death, with its poor halting feet sink
ing at each step through the crisp thin
crust of acid alkali. is a gruesome beast
enough; and the dreary marge of the
ssphaltic lake satisfies the imagination.
Tempted by the glistening level of the
water, it has tottered down from the
rocks only to find itself Knocked, the
waters bitter, and itself q doomed
thing. Affair off it saw some green stuff
but, coming nearer to nibble, found
Is parched mouth filled with veno-
mously pungent euphorbia. as shocking
to the taste as those phantom apples
that Milton tells US Satan and his rebel
host raven after and eat once a year
Instinct, so often dangerous to beasts
will keep it chained to that dreary
shore, and the hope of the water sweet
ening by-and-by will tempt it onward
step by step; but long before the circuit
| OF the sea is accom- plished it will stagger
! and fall on its knees, never to get up
again. Poor beast A more pitiable,
pitifui quadruped than this scapegoat,
1t would be very difficult to imagine.
But l have my own ideas about the
scapegoat, and they scarcely presen
the animal to me in the same artistically
disastrous aspect. Nor do l quite
understand how it is that the creature
has come to be considered such an I'M
fortunate functionary. There is moth
ing in Holy Writ to justify the expecta-
ton OF deplorable future. We read
that the Levites selected out of the
herds two goats, and drew lots for them
one for God and one for the devil
and that the former was killed and the |
latter let go. Now the goats were both |
to be "kids"-not patriarchal beasts |
like that of Holman Hunts picture
and the scapegoat, the one that was
turned out into the wilderness, was |
taken away by ''fit person." who had |
to leave it in "a land not inhabited"
But, lest might be thought Inaccurate,
| will quote from the words that 1.-THE |
Lord Spake unto Moses" on the matter.
Aaron, so 1t was ordered, was to ''take
from the congregation of the children
of Israel two kids of the goats" to
present them before the Lord at the
door of the Tabernacle" and least lots
upon the two goats, one lot for the
Lord and the other lot for the scape-
goat" The former after some inter
mediate ceremonies with bullock, was
to be killed, its blood sprinkled about,
and its carcass utterly consumed by
ire outside the camp, and everyone |
therein concerned was to be considered |
temporarily unclean. So much, then,
for the kid that was fortunate enough |
to be drawn for the Lord" But to the |
other-the never-to-b be too much pitied, |
dying-on-the- DeaG-Seashore scapegoat |
what had meanwhile happened? Let |
US read again from Leviticus :-"And |
Aaron shall lay both his hands upon
the head of the live goat and confess
over him all the inqulties of the children
of Israel, and all their transgressions in |
all their sins, putting them upon the
head of the goat, and shall send him
away by the hand of fit man into the
wilderness. And the goat shall bear
upon him all their iniquities unto a
land notlnhabited, and he shall let go
the goat in the wilderness" Here, then,
are the facts. The kid, VIGOROUSLY
inquitous, was led away out of the camp
and "let 60" Well, what then? l can
easily picture to myself the eft person"
hauling the complaining goatling along
by its ears, and even fancy that 1 hear
its piteous outcries in response to the
sympathetic bleatings of its playmates.
can also imagine the fit person, haV-
ing got well out of sight of Aaron,
letting the beast "go," and shouting at
it and stoning it to make it go further.
But who that has ever tried to make a
kid "go"can suppose for a moment
that he succeededP OF course the
little beast would make off at first; but
only out of range of the chunks of rock
flung after it by the "person." AS soon
as it was secured from missiles by a
moderate interval it would stop and
watch its prosecutor; and the moment
that he turned to. go home it would
turn and go after him. 1t is no use
saying it would not. Let any person,
fit or not, take kid out of q herd
where it mother and aunts and cousins
above all, its Dlayfellows-are and try
the experiment of letting it go in the
wilderness. 1 will wager any amount
that the attempt is a Misunderstanding
miracles. And there is no reason for
supposing from Leviticus that the
departure of the soapegoat was in any
way miraculous So that my own
opinion is that the kid used to come
Skipping home again to the congrega-
ton the Jaekdaw Of Rheims notwith-
standing. For a kid is q very volatile